1. Field of the Invention
THIS INVENTION relates to the lamination of vegetable matter. The term "vegetable matter" shall be used to include plants, flowers, leaves, grasses and other flora.
2. Prior Art
There have been many attempts to laminate vegetable matter between backing materials (e.g. paper, cardboard, timber) and transparent plastics sheeting e.g. on greeting cards. The results have been less than satisfactory.
The laminating processes have tended to flatten the vegetable matter and so the three-dimensional effect of e.g. the flowers, on the backing sheet, has been lost. In addition, as the air has not been removed from between the laminating sheet and the backing sheet, the vegetable matter degrades fairly quickly. Finally, the conventional laminating processes result in a loss of color in the vegetable matter, particularly with flowers.